John made a great post below detailing what a failure Wayne Hunter has been this season. He also touched on the lack of promise Vlad Ducasse has shown us in preseason and regular season action. The simple matter of fact in this case is that if Ducasse had developed to the point where he was superior to Hunter, he would already be on the field. So stop calling for Ducasse in for Hunter, Vlad will come into the game full time when he is game-ready.
Believe it or not, I'm actually impressed with how quickly Colin Baxter is picking up the game. Under normal circumstances the kid wouldn't have seen a stitch of regular season playing time until week 17 at the most. Bad snaps and mistakes aside, Baxter has been a rather effective fill-in, all things considered.
With all of that said, lay off of Bill Callahan, will you? While watching the Ravens game, countless Jets fans called for Callahan's head and blamed him for the sudden anemic to non-existent performance from the offensive line. I just don't agree with this sentiment. To he honest I don't even think it's appropriate to blame Mike T. The FO workers coaches and managers were not the ones who valued the bottom line over improving the team, that was the position of Woody Johnson and every other owner since before the lockout even began. The big-market owners outside of Philly and D.C. have been dead set at reducing player expenditures forever now. I warned you there would be sacrifices this year, not the big additions were used to as spoiled Jets fans. I hate being right in such a way.
My argument when it comes to Callahan is that if you pooped on a plate and handed it to a world-renown sculptor, you might get something that looks a little better but you're still going to be handed back a steaming plate of crap. Our O line without Woody and Mangold is the metaphorical plate of crap.
As for Sanchez, I'm the last person to defend some of his horrible mistakes, but watch the game again if you have it recorded. On the plays where Sanchez was sacked or fumbled, or on most plays where he threw it away, players were in the backfield before he even turned around to throw.
The truth of the matter is that on most disastrous plays last game, Sanchez had less than one full second of reaction time. No QB can succeed with that kind of (lack of) protection. When you watch, see how many times Sanchez had a full second or greater to save the play. See if you can count on more than one hand the times Sanchez had 2.0 + seconds to react and make a throw. Barely any.
If this O line cannot buy their passer 2-3 seconds on most passing downs, then most QB's would never have a chance of succeeding. When you see a performance as horrible as Mark's during a game, it's easy to jump on his back or have no confidence in him. In my opinion, we need to give (and KEEP) the tools necessary for Sanchez to have a realistic chance.
IT'S THE O-LINE, SILLY!
My assertion is that neither Mark Sanchez or Bill Callahan can succeed unless we give them the tools to do so. Voice your disagreement with me below.